


A Pointless Crime

by Bluewolf458



Category: The Sentinel (TV)
Genre: Gen, Sentinel Thursday
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-20
Updated: 2021-02-20
Packaged: 2021-03-17 03:02:29
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,171
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29586249
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Bluewolf458/pseuds/Bluewolf458
Summary: Jim is given a case where rich men are getting their cars' tires slashed.
Relationships: Jim Ellison & Blair Sandburg
Comments: 1
Kudos: 11
Collections: 2021 Sentinel Thursday Recycled Challenges





	A Pointless Crime

**Author's Note:**

> Written for the Sentinel Thursday prompt 'reason'.

  


A Pointless Crime

by Bluewolf

When Blair arrived at Rainier, he was called in to Chancellor Edwards' office before he had time to reach the stairs leading to his own cramped 'office' in Artifact Storage Room 3.

_Now what?_ he thought as he went in. He was not one of Chancellor Edwards' favorite people.

But, as it turned out, it could have been worse. One of the other TAs had called in sick. Her class was at ten; Blair could, Edwards said, cut his office hours short, and take that class.

Unfortunately, the absentee Cindy had taken her lecture notes home, so he would have to come up with something from scratch.

***

On his way down to his cramped little office, he decided that a discussion would be the simplest way to fill in the time when he had no idea of what Cindy had been doing with the class - her subject was actually archaeology, but although he had done some archaeology he knew he wasn't knowledgeable enough to actually teach it. Not without probably the best part of a week at the very minimum to prepare a lecture - and give himself some background so that he could respond to any questions.

Once in his office he knew he should be thinking through points for the discussion - even though it would be a very basic one. But he couldn't stop thinking about Jim's most recent case. It was another of the Mayor's "I want your best men..." cases, although the crime was far from major - the houses had garages, but few of the residents actually used them for their cars; they were just convenient storage units. And tires were being slashed in the residential area where the Mayor lived. He himself had not been affected - his chauffeur had always chosen to use the garage for the car.

But a spate of slashed tires, with no obvious reason for it... He was the Mayor, he had to be seen to be doing something, and for once Blair could appreciate the man's thinking. There had to be a reason. There was no other damage done to the cars... why was someone slashing the tires?

After some minutes, Blair resolutely shook his head and turned his attention to the discussion he was planning. He could, he decided, lean on the way he introduced the first discussion on anthropology he did with his own classes. He could insert comments to keep a discussion on anthropology going; but unfortunately he was much less likely to be able to insert archaeological comments.

But maybe questions, depending on how the discussion was going? Yes... that was a possibility.

***

In the event, the discussion went very well, and he decided that Cindy had a very good 101 class with these students.

With that class dismissed, he had a class of his own to teach. It was a lecture on rites of adulthood in hunter-gatherer tribes that he could have given in his sleep, although he did have notes to refer to if necessary, and he went through it smoothly. He had it timed so that there would be fifteen minutes at the end for any questions the students might have - he had found that the better the class, the more likely some of them would be to have questions.

And he was right. He hadn't allowed the previous class to over-run, because he had this one to take, but he was happy to let this one carry on asking questions for several minutes before he dismissed them.

He went via his office to leave his lecture notes and a quickly scribbled note for Cindy telling her what he had done, then headed off for the PD.

***

Jim looked up from the report he was studying to give Blair's arrival a quick acknowledgement, turned his attention back to the computer screen for a moment, then pushed his chair back.

"Problems?" Blair asked sympathetically.

"It's this damned tire-slashing case," Jim muttered. "It seems absolutely pointless. And random. A few more of the owners are putting their cars in their garages now... but one of the ones who did went out the next morning, found the garage door open and his tires flat... while his neighbor, who hadn't bothered, still had intact tires."

"Has anyone been targeted more than once?" Blair asked.

"Odd you should ask that," Jim said. "One was - but so far, only one."

Blair nodded slowly. "This is maybe a bit of a reach, but do any of the men whose tires have been slashed have teenaged sons?"

"I don't know," Jim said. "Why?"

"The lecture I was giving today... I encourage the students to ask questions during the last fifteen minutes or so of a class. Today the lecture was on rites of adulthood, and one of the questions I was asked was whether there were such rites in American society. I know that university fraternities and sororities often have some sort of initiation... and I started wondering about the tire-slashing cases."

"You think the tires might be being slashed as some kind of initiation?"

"It's possible."

"By the sons of the men who have been targeted?"

"A high-class 'gang'," Blair said, "sort of rebelling against - well, the privilege of being rich?"

Jim looked at him for a moment, then got up and crossed to Rhonda. He spoke to her for a moment then went back to his desk. "Rhonda is going to find out the composition of the various families."

***

After that, it was simple. Blair was right - it was a rebellion by the sons of the rich men in the area. The one who was targeted twice had twin sons. The ones whose tires had been left untouched either had younger children, only daughters, no children at all, or children old enough to have left home. Most of the teenage boys who were involved went to the same school, and it turned out that one of their teachers had been grooming them to consider that having wealth, beyond a certain level, was wrong, and they had decided to show their support for their teacher's views by slashing the tires on their fathers' cars, restricting the damage to one a night to cause worry.

The teacher lost his job, was banned from teaching and sentenced to a year of community service for using his position to subvert young minds. The parents were left to punish their sons - most did by restricting the boys' pocket money to a few dollars until the cost of four new tires was covered - and as the father of the twins pointed out to them, this was giving them a taste of what 'not having wealth' would mean.

The Mayor (for once) made a point of contacting Major Crime to thank the 'top detective', who in turn was quick to point out that the case was actually solved by his partner - a civilian consultant with Major Crime.

And then Jim and Blair headed off for a day of relaxation in Cascade National Forest.

  



End file.
